Inside MAD

by John Ficarra (Editor)

Go Inside MAD! It has long been assumed that anyone who wasted their formative years reading MAD must have wound up as a complete failure in life. But as it turns out, some readers actually went on to be...successful! For the first time ever, MAD asked some of these successful readers to share what reading (and appearing in) MAD meant to them. What they have to say may surprise you! Featuring essays with nouns, verbs, and punctuation by: Roseanne Barr Ken Burns Dane Cook Paul Feig Whoopi Goldberg Harry Hamlin Tony Hawk Ice-T Penn Jillette George Lopez David Lynch Todd McFarlane Jeff Probst John Slattery John Stamos Pendleton Ward Matthew Weiner But wait-there's more! (Regrettably.) MAD asked some of the aforementioned "complete failures in life" (MAD's editors, writers and artists to share their all-time favorite MAD articles. What they have to say will definitely disappoint you! Featuring the moronic mumblings of: Sergio Aragones Tom Bunk Tim Carvell Paul Coker Jack Davis Dick DeBartolo Desmond Devlin Mort Drucker Mark Fredrickson Drew Friedman Frank Jacobs Al Jaffee Peter Kuper Tom Richmond And many more! Plus, inside: a never-before-reprinted Alfred E. Neuman pop art poster! And, an all new fold-out poster: a specially commissioned look at the legendary MAD offices by Sergio Aragones!

Genres: Comics, Humor, Anthologies, Pop Culture

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 29, 2013

Reviews

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who ever thought that a satirical magazine started in the 50's would become such a beloved institution? It was certainly an integral part of my childhood, not to mention a warping influence on my sense of humor. And I was hardly alone in this respect, as the many celebrity tributes sprinkled throughout this book attest.

Mad editor, John Ficarra, asked the magazine’s contributors to choose some of their favorite articles from its storied history. Added to the mix are essays from various celebrities--Roseanne Barr, Whoopi Goldberg, Penn Jillette, Ice-T, George Lopez, and more--about their experiences with the magazine over the years. The result is a rich, idiosyncratic walk through Mad history. This isn't a Best Of book--it doesn't contain the rules for 43 Man Squamish after all--but it contains some classic material.

Two things stood out for me from the rest of the book. One is Pendleton Ward’s reaction to Mad’s article parodying his brilliant cartoon series, Adventure Time, which is every bit as quirky and warm and funny as you'd imagine. The other is from the wife of the late Bill Gaines, Annie, who has possibly the best reason of all for her selection of a favorite article. Overall, the book is fascinating and funny in equal measure. Highly recommended!

[Ray Dunsmore · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up shortly after word got out that MAD is soon to be ceasing almost all publication. Like most good things, I hadn't really thought about it in ages and it took its sudden disappearance to really notice what it meant. And there's no better way to explore that than with a book full of effusive praise and fond memories from the people who worked on it and grew up with it. Though, I'll admit, I started reading in the mid-00's, well past the golden age, it was still a fairly reliable source of childhood mirth (and groans). Though my experiences were nowhere near as life-changing or career-orienting as most of the people chronicled, I'm still glad it was there and I sincerely mourn its loss for weird children in years to come.

But then, they all go on Tumblr now, don't they?

[Ricardo Shimoda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book - most of the things you'd like to see in a typical MAD were shown and commented by the artists themselves, along with many surprising (or not) connections with their careers. The satire, parodies, and humor are (almost) universal and, for better or worse, still relevant to this day - maybe even more so.

I guess the only thing I really disliked about this were the 9 (I counted) pieces where you need to know (typical) songs (from American culture) to grasp the joke better - and this kind of represents the not-so-universal humor. Other than that, it's a book that made me laugh at the end of the day while I was reading it.

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gets 4 stars because it is after all a great big chunk of generally funny MAD stuff. However, the premise didn't really pan out...as all too often the celebrities were only interested when it was about them ("Better they laugh at ya than forget ya!"). And folks who responded with a paragraph or two really should've been discarded. At any rate, the whole business grew a bit pungent with narcissism (to put it in the words of one of the contributors: "shamelessly seguing into my own work").

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable nostalgic romp. I did think there would be a whole section of fold out covers though...

[Ryk Stanton · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting retrospective including famous people reflecting on their MAD memories.

[Jarett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yep, another MAD anthology, however the "favorite" selections were chosen by celebrities and MAD staffers, but the celebrities only chose the issues they were in, and the staffers stuck to the things they worked on. I like MAD, but their parodies are way too wordy and only funny if you're familiar with what's being parodied. Soo... a bunch of parodies from the 90's isnt going to hold up

[Jennifer Gilbert-Georgia · Rating 3 out of 5]

pages of classic MAD spoofs with comments from the artist they made fun of...

[Uriah · Rating 5 out of 5]

i think this book really showed the true history of mad i'm a little sad it didn't show or talk about the television show.